Disney on Menstruation, 1946

I just came across this on the one hand endearing and helpful and on the other hand rather ickily normative Disney movie.

The Story of Menstruation is a 1946 10-minute animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions in 1946.
It was commissioned by the International Cello-Cotton Company (now Kimberly-Clark) and was shown to approximately 105 million American students in health education classes.

I mean, Carrie would have felt better for having seen this, surely, but oy! the admonitions to eat healthy and not get colds, or even worse: to look nice and stop feeling sorry for yourself, do grate the contemporary nerves.

 

Via @abstractisme

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Women uninterested in casual sex with those they consider likely to be dangerous and bad in bed

Not a news flash, is it? But the interesting thing is that this seems to fully explain previous experimental results that were taken to show women are uninterested in casual sex. (Thanks, S!)

Women Fight to Maintain Their Role in the Building of a New Egypt

Women Fight to Maintain Their Role in the Building of a New Egypt (good NY Times article)

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/world/middleeast/06cairo.html

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Excerpts:

“…Egypt’s popular revolution was the work of men and women, bringing together housewives and fruit sellers, businesswomen and students. At its height, roughly one quarter of the million protesters who poured into the square each day were women. Veiled and unveiled women shouted, fought and slept in the streets alongside men, upending traditional expectations of their behavior.

The challenge now, activists here say, is to make sure that women maintain their involvement as the nation lurches forward, so that their contribution to the revolution is not forgotten…”

“…There have been disappointments outside the square, too. The committee of eight legal experts appointed by the military authorities to revise the Constitution did not include a single woman or, according to Amal abd al-Hadi, a longtime feminist here, anyone with a gender-sensitive perspective.

As a result, one proposed revision states that the Egyptian president may not be married to a “non-Egyptian woman” — seemingly ruling out the possibility of a woman as president…”

“…A coalition including Nawal el-Saadawi, a leading feminist, is planning a million women’s march for Tuesday, with no set agenda other than to promote democracy. Ms. Diaa said that she planned to stay home now to give the new prime minister a chance to work and to help her children. But she said she would return to the streets if Mr. Sharaf did not quickly make democratic changes.

“I don’t see a difference between men and women,” she said, talking about her many days of protesting. “The only difference is that men are more able to take the sticks of the thugs. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have a voice. I believe that I have a voice, so I can’t stay at home. I have a responsibility. I can be one of a million.”

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Interested readers might also want to check out these three older posts:

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1) Egyptian Women Protesting

https://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/2011/01/30/egyptian-women-protesting/

2) Gender at the Egyptian Protests

https://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/gender-at-the-egyptian-protests/

3) Why We Need Women in War Zones

https://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/why-we-need-women-in-war-zones/